Microsoft has finally dished up UK prices for its forthcoming Office 2010 suite.

The software vendor revealed US prices in January, and at the same time confirmed that customers who bought Office 2010 pre-installed by OEMs rather than purchasing an off-the-shelf copy stood to save a few bucks to boot.

Microsoft will be offering a similar incentive here in Blighty when Office 2010 lands in June.

The company said today that the Office Home and Student so-called Product Key Card carries a £89.99 price tag, compared with £109.99 for the packaged product.

Office Home and Business can be activated via a key card for £189.99 a pop, versus a boxed price of £239.99. The Office Professional pre-installed copy will cost £299.99, compared to £399.99 at retail.

Redmond is of course clearly hoping to scoop up more sales of Windows 7 by offering prices for Office 2010 Product Key Cards that undercut the boxed-up, shrink-wrapped version of the software sold by the likes of PC World and others.

The catch being that UK customers can only "take advantage" of the "greater value" prices by first buying a PC from one of Microsoft's retail partners, which it's fair to assume will have Windows happily loaded on to it.

Meanwhile, Redmond has told biz customers to play the waiting game on Office 2010 prices.

"Details on Volume Licensing for Office 2010 are not available at this time," it said. ®